Handbag frame



J. L. COLEGROVE pril 11, 1944.

HANDBAG FRAME Filed Jan. 20, 1943 -INV NTOR sew/r Z 4 0156 170145 BY QZMWN Patented Apr. 11, 1944 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE .2 Claims.

The invention hereindisclosed relates 'to'frames for handbags.

Special objects of the invention are to improve the clasp and hinge structures of such frames, to-combine and incorporate these portions within and so as to form actually a part of the sides or bows of the frame and to attain a condition free of projecting parts and with the hinge and clasp structures normally wholly concealed.

Further special objects of the invention are to provide a self-contained unitary-design of hand bag frame having the advantageous features mentioned and which may be constructed of readily available, non-metallic materials and which, so constructed, will be entirely practical and wholly desirable from the mechanical standpoint .and from the aesthetic viewpoint as well.

The foregoing and other desirable objects are attained by the novel features of construction, combinations and relations of parts hereinafter described, illustrated by way of disclosure in the accompanying drawing and broadly covered in the claims.

Fig. 1 in the drawing is a top plan or edge view of an embodiment of the bag frame in closed position.

Fig. 2 is a front or face view of the same.

Fig. 3 is a top plan view of the frame in partly open position.

Fig. 4 is a bottom plan view of the frame in closed condition.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged vertical sectional view on substantially the plane of line 5-5 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 6 is a similar view of the frame in partly open condition.

Fig. 7 is a broken sectional detail showing particularly the construction and mounting of the clasp roller, as taken on substantially the plane of line 1-1 of Fig. 9.

Fig. 8 is a broken plan with parts in section as on the plane of line 8--8 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 9 is a similar view of the same parts in released, open relation.

Fig. 10 is a sectional detail as on the plane of line IIJI0 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 11 is a broken sectional view of one of the hinges, as on line H--H of Fig. 2.

In the present preferred embodiment of the invention, the bows or sides l5, I6, of the frame are constructed entirely of wood, shaped to desired ornamental or more or less plain configuration and formed to have the leather, fabric or other bag material attached thereto. In the illustration, the sides are channeled or reduced as indicated at l1, to have the bag material secured thereto as by cementing, tacking or otherwise and it will be understood that these bows may be grooved around the inside to have the material set therein or otherwise constructed to suit the method selected for securing the bag material.

The ends .of the bows are connected by flexible elastic hinges of non-metallic material, in the form of webs or bands 4 8, of leather, rubber, :rubber ized fabric or the like, secured at the ends in V-shaped grooves I9, in the ends of the bows, said grooves at opposite sides of and substantially parallel with the hinge axis 20. Wedges 2|, secured .over the ends of the hinge strips as 'by brads or other fastenings 22, firmly anchor the ends of the strip and tension the intermediate portions of the strip across the hinge axis. In addition "to fastening-s 2-2, the strips and wedges may be cemented in the V-s'haped anchorage grooves.

Each of the bows has a full width portion for one half its longitudinal extent constituting a portion of the outer perimeter of the frame, these portions being longitudinally opposite and each overstanding a narrower portion of less radial extent on the other bow.

Thus the bow 15, has a full width outer portion 23, extending from the left hand hinge end, Fig. 2, to the oblique parting line 24, at the middle of the frame and the bow l6, has a corresponding full width outer portion 25, extending from the right hand hinge to said parting line at the middle. The face of the full width portion of the bow I5, is shouldered and cut down at 26, from the middle down to the hinge at that end to receive the thinner and lesser diameter portion 21, of the other bow l6, and the latter is similarly shouldered and reduced at 28, to receive the thinner and lesser diameter portion 29, of the bow [5. In practice, the shouldered and reduced portion at one end of each bow, as 26 of bow I 5, is in line with and forms a continuation of the opposite thinner end portion 29, so that in the closing of the frame, these thinner portions of the frame will come flat together, with the thicker end portions overlapping diagonally opposite thinner portions of the bows. This overlapping relation enables one bow to brace and reinforce the other and has the desirable effect as shown in Fig. 1, of fully concealing the longitudinal meeting faces of the bows and giving the impression of a solid, full thickness frame with no iongitudinal parting line.

The catch or clasp consists of a small roller 30, which may be of wood, rotatably seated in a cavity 3|, set back from the inclined abutment face 32 of the bow l6, and a holding recess 33, formed in the correspondingly inclined end face 34 of the bow I5.

As shown particularly in Figs. 8 and 9, the roller 30 is confined by overstanding edges of the circular cavity 3|, and thus retained in slightly protruding relation, so as to be engaged by the inclined face 34, of the keeper structure 33, on the other bow..

Figs. 5 and 6 show how the roller is set on an inclined axis, that is, with the outer end of the roller tilted toward the opposing bow and Fig. 7

shows how the opposite ends of the roller may be more or less pointed to form in effect more or less conical pintles 35, tending to center the roller in its cavity.

The resiliency of the yielding hinges and the spring" inherent in the wooden frame permit the parts of the catch to snap over each other in the opening and closing movements of the frame.

To assist in holding the frame closed and to guard against accidental release, the wider portions, 23, 25, may have inwardly extended shoulders, such as indicated at 35, Fig. 2, to overlap corresponding shoulders 31, extending radially outward. These shoulders overlapping in the closed position of the frame prevent relative lon gitudinalv movements of the bows which might efiect release of the catch or injure the flexible hinges.

What is claimed is:

1. In a fastener for a handbag frame having wooden bows hingedly connected at their ends, integral-wooden abutments in longitudinally opposed relation on the intermediate portions of said bows, one'of said abutments having a substantially cylindrical cavity therein extending substantially radially of the hinge axis and opening through the face of the same which is opposed to the other abutment, a substantially cylindrical roller disposed in said substantially cylindrical cavity and in rotatable engagement with the walls of said cavity and thereby held partly protruding from the face of said abutment, the opposing face of the other abutment being positioned to engage the exposed protruding portion of said roller to force the latter to rotate in frictional engagement with the confining walls of said cavity and having a keeper recess of a size to substantially fit the protruding portion of said roller when said abutments come into fully opposing relation when the bows are hinged together.

1 .2. In a fastener for a handbag frame having wooden bows hingedly connected at their ends,

"integral wooden abutments in longitudinally opposed relation on the intermediate portions of said bows, one of said abutments having a substantially cylindrical cavity therein extending substantially radially of the hinge axis and opening through the face of the same which is opposed to the other abutment, a substantially cylindrical roller disposed in said substantially cylindrical cavity and in rotatable engagement with the walls of said cavity and thereby held partly protruding from the face of said abutment, the opposing face of the other abutment being positioned to engage the exposed protruding portion of said roller to force the latter to rotate in frictional engagement with the confining walls of said cavity and having a keeper recess of a size to substantially fit the protruding portion of said roller when said abutments come into fully opposing relation when the bows are hinged together, said abutments having inwardly projecting shoulders located in back of said opposed faces and each of said bows having an outwardly projecting shoulder disposed to stand in back of the inwardly projecting shoulder of the other bow when the bows are in fully closed relation.

JOSEPH L. COLEGROVE. 

